


Five times Hunk almost said I love you and the one time he did

by ahunkofburninglove (dual_winchesters), dual_winchesters



Series: Hunk Week 2018 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Background Poly, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk Week 2018, I name this ship polyvan, M/M, Multi, Other, Polyamory, They/Them, but theyre all dating, hunk week, some are sexual, some platonic, some relationships are romantic, sweet boy Hunk, they are all together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 19:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13301988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dual_winchesters/pseuds/ahunkofburninglove, https://archiveofourown.org/users/dual_winchesters/pseuds/dual_winchesters
Summary: Hunk keeps trying to tell his teammates he loves them but it never works out, until it does.A 5:1 fic for day 1 of Hunk Week- Day 1: (Love) / Happiness





	1. One: Lance, Two: Keith, Three: Pidge.

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to @theprimarypaladins on tumblr.  
> This is for Day 1 of Hunk Week 2018. Hopefully I can keep up.  
> I chose "Love".

One: Lance

Hunk realizes he loves Lance first, and this of course doesn’t surprise him in the slightest. Lance was his first everything: friend, best friend, boyfriend, kiss. They’ve been fighting with robot lions in space for close to three deca-phoebs now, and dating for at least half of one of those and he’s been platonically telling Lance he loves him since they bonded over pineapple pizza their first day at the Garrison, and everyday since. Their transition from friends to lovers to boyfriends was so easy sometimes he wonders how it didn’t happen sooner (i.e. back while they were still on earth) but underneath that he knows they just needed to settle and grow a little first. Even still, from that fateful meeting Hunk has always known Lance was for him, and that best friends was going to become _best friends and…_

They’re lying together in the media room on a random day watching what could only be the space equivalent of Keeping up with the Kardashians, and Lance is sleepily curled in to his side, arms hugging Hunk’s arm and struggling to stay awake but keeping up commentary that makes Hunk want to fall over laughing nonetheless. But he makes sure to hold extra still, and in that moment, he feels warm, and soft and like everything in the world is right next to him. He turns to Lance and opens his mouth to speak and…finds Lance fast asleep, mouth open and drooling and still the best sight Hunk has ever seen. Cuddling closer, he turns back to the TV and smiles, theres lots of time to tell him.

Two: Keith

The addition of the rest of the paladins surprises him, despite him being the one to bring them all in. They had settled quickly enough into a family, but the romance part never came as easy, and never quite at the right time.

Pidge was hurt, so hurt, _oh god_ , and Hunk’s brain had shut down entirely. Watching Shiro run towards the med bay, Pidge limp in his arms, and Lance holding a struggling Keith from following the slowly retreating Galra left no impression in his brain other than a fuzzy kind of silence that left him feeling dizzy. On auto pilot he started walking, his mind screaming at him to go somewhere and somehow ended up in the kitchen. His hands started moving without his permission, dragging out ingredients, bowls, pans and only once he poured milk onto something that resembled flour did they stop shaking. Only then did he feel like he could breathe. He reached out for something, he doesn’t even remember now, he had spent so long baking that his body knew what do without his brain chipping in too much, but his hand was caught. Startled he jumped, almost pulling his hand back before he realized it was Keith.

Just Keith, eyes red with tears he probably shed with Lance, alone together in the Hangar Bay, and Hunk wants to hug him, but the image of Pidge’s limp body has resurfaced in his mind again and he can’t get enough control of his body to move. Hunk shakes his head to get the image out and suddenly there’s a whimper of _Keith_ and it takes him a second to realize it was him. Keith’s face, normally hard with stubbornness and determination is now soft, his eyes warm and welcoming in a way Hunk’s never seen them and Hunk wants to say it, right now, but he knows that both of them are a little too haunted with worry to hear it. So, he lets Keith pull him to the floor and into his arms and finally, finally, feels safe enough to cry. He can always tell him later.

Three: Pidge

A half an hour later, after too many tears are shed, just enough kisses are laid on cheeks and foreheads, and somehow Keith is assured Hunk will be fine, he gets up and tries to salvage whatever it was he was trying to make in his unconscionable state. When he realizes that all the makings for what seems to be double chocolate chip cookies are on the counter the tears try to come again, enough that he has to pause and rub his eyes for a moment. Double chocolate chip is Pidge’s _favourite_. He somehow manages to pull himself together enough that his hands start moving and soon enough there are cookies in the oven and Hunk has unconsciously started humming the X-files theme under his breath as he checks on them, smiling stupidly to himself. While they bake he checks in with Allura and Coran, who tell him Pidge will be fine, just sore and in need of rest once the healing pod has done its work. Hunk smiles at them as they discuss how to keep Pidge in their bed, its hilarious how well they all know them, and chimes in when they get to actually proposing that they restrain them that he’s got it covered.

Roughly a varga later, the pod opens, but it takes a solid 35 doboshes more for Pidge to wake up. Hunk knows because they're all scrunched up together in the tiny space that is Pidge’s room, none of them willing to leave even for a tick… also, he counted. As their eyes blink open there’s silence, but Hunk can read the collective sigh of relief in all of their bodies. Allura and Coran tag-team the news breaking and Hunk watches as Pidge squirms with the news that they’re stuck in bed for at least the next day. Before everyone leaves Shiro gives Pidge the sweetest hug Hunk’s ever seen, Keith and Lance ruffle their hair --which causes the cutest indignant look to cross their face--and finally once everyone has gone, Pidge smirks, lifts up the blankets and starts to get up and… Hunk totally saw this coming.

So, he lifts the lid of the container in his lap with a quiet pop, and Pidge freezes and darts her gaze his way. He almost wants to burst out laughing with how unapologetic they look, but he watches as they get a whiff of the somehow still warm cookies --Alien technology, man--and almost melt with pleasure. Smirking, he stands up, and taking two cookies with him stands next to Pidge’s bed as they slowly crawl back in and after a pause, scoot over. He climbs in next to them and holds out a cookie-less arm and after a few ticks Pidge realizes what he wants and curls in to his side and makes gimmie-fingers towards the cookies. Ah yes, bribery at its finest.


	2. Four: Shiro, Five: Kolivan, One: I love you.

Four: Shiro

Hunk, not unlike the rest of the team, has looked up to Shiro since before he knew him. Strong, resilient, unflappable Shiro; poster boy—literally—for “The Galaxy Garrison”: but Hunk knows better, he sees too much of Shiro, can read him too easily.

One day after a mission goes horribly wrong and a Blade member is killed, all Hunk can read is _bad_.

Shiro disappears after the debrief at dinner, as he always does after a mission, but this time as Hunk glances across the table and meets the worried eyes of the rest of the team, this time Hunk can’t leave him alone. He pushes Keith back into his seat as he stands, petting Keith’s hair out of his eyes in a move so effective that Keith immediately melts into his chair. His hands are quickly snatched up by Lance and Pidge from across the table, and he smiles gratefully at Hunk as he leaves the room.

He bypasses Shiro’s room entirely and heads towards the bridge, he knows Shiro barely even sleeps in his room but spends enough time going over plans and semantics that its at least a good place to start. On his way he passes the training deck and hears a thump, peeking in through the glass shows him what he desperately didn’t want to see. Shiro is slumped against the wall, his body crashing against it was obviously the source of the earlier thump, but when he stands again, he allows the training bot to smack him around and shove him again, his attempts at defense half-hearted at best. This time he smacks his head, and even Hunk can almost see the cartoon birds circling him as he rushes into the room, throwing out a quick phrase to end the simulation.

Despite his head injury Shiro tries to get to his feet, looking less dazed from his head injury—thank quiznak—and more from his feelings. There’s a darkness in his eyes that he turns toward Hunk, but Hunk knows he’s not really angry, not at him at least, so he makes sure to open up his stance and soften his features, but he plants his feet because Shiro needs to know that he’s not backing down on this. He thinks something in Shiro recognizes this because he almost immediately slumps to his knees, Hunk catching him on the way down and smoothing back his hair as he’s clung to. It takes one murmur of _“It’s not your fault”_ for Shiro’s muscles to tense and then Hunk realizes his shirt is damp.

Hunk is heartbroken for him, but his boy needs protecting right now, so he lifts him into his arms and carries him to Hunk’s room, where he rips the blankets and pillows off the bed and curls them up together under his desk where no one can see them even if someone comes looking. And for the first time, Shiro sleeps peacefully. He knows, he stays up to keep watch.

Five: Kolivan

If Hunk getting the rest of the paladins together surprised him, the addition of strong, silent Kolivan is a plot twist of epic proportions. Despite their differences Hunk quickly finds himself working with Kolivan on missions, _always_. And not even in a ‘ _this was totally our plan all along’_   kind of way but in a _‘oh shit everyone else has been kidnapped lets break them out’_ or a ‘ _your ship with all the rescued prisoners broke down and I’m the closest person who can fix it’_ or even one particularly memorable time _‘someone hit you and Ulaz with darts that were covered in something that was poisonous to Galra and made you super giggly and loopy and none of the blade members could touch you without getting infected so Shiro and I came down and got you out of there and you were making jokes that made absolutely no sense but your laugh was adorable and you even purred a little’._ So of course, somewhere along the way, Hunk starts getting feelings.

Kolivan is harsh yes, but he’s a leader, and Hunk can see underneath all of that to his soft, kind Galra insides and oh man is he royally quiznak’d. They’re prepping for a mission, assigned together for once because it ends up that way regardless, and Kolivan is double checking Hunk’s suit for what he calls safety but Hunk calls being a ridiculously protective bear of a Galra and Hunk just says ‘quiznak’ and drags him down into a kiss that stills his hands and body.

When he pulls back Kolivan’s eyes are half-lidded and his face has gone soft, and Hunk is so tempted to pull him back in and put words to what he’s feeling so of course that means that’s when the alarm goes off, blaring and startling them both into taking a step back. Sighing, Hunk turns and heads to yellow’s hangar, a little frustrated that every time he tries to say anything he’s cut off, but he knows it’ll come up, there will be a right time, he just has to be patient and stay alive. Deal with the Galra first.

 

One: I love you.

They’re in the bridge, Shiro’s discussing the castles defenses with Kolivan who is gesturing a little too animatedly next to Pidge, who has to keep dodging his hands but smiles warmly at him after each duck, Keith and Lance are on the opposite side of the room bickering about who cheated in a _thumb war_ of all things, and Allura and Coran just left to head down to the crystal room, to check it for damage after the battle they just managed to escape not even a varga prior. And Hunk, well Hunk is in the middle of all the chaos and as he looks from group to group he realizes in this moment he loves this group of beings more than anything and so before he gets cut off by the universe he just says it. “I love you.”

There’s a beat of silence, then two, three; and then he’s buried in a pile of four paladins and smiled down at by Kolivan. Who is then quickly tripped into the pile by Pidge, lands on Keith and Lance, who both let out groans that devolve into hysterical giggles and Hunk can’t help himself, so he says it again. And again.  And again. “I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you…”


End file.
